Cellular and wireless communication devices have seen explosive growth over the past several years. This growth has been fueled by better communications hardware, larger networks, and more reliable protocols. Today's smartphones include cameras, GPS receivers, Bluetooth® transceivers, and of course the cellular communication capabilities (e.g., LTE, 3G and/or 4G network access) to enable the devices to establish data communication links with the Internet. Smartphones are now very widely deployed in society. Additionally, the components and capabilities in smartphones are now very affordable, enabling the capabilities to be deployed in other types of devices.
Numerous solutions have been proposed to facilitate location of persons or assets leveraging cellular and wireless devices. Most of these systems involve the development of a wearable device that communicates the position of the wearer to a server. Others involve establishment of a radio connection between the wearer and a cellular device. Such systems suffer from issues of cost, effectiveness and practicality, which limit their viability. Further, schemes that transmit wireless information indicating user identities or other unique information may be tracked by unintended parties, causing security concerns. For example, nefarious parties may capture radio messages that include user identities, such as by using a packet sniffer, and may determine the origin of the messages by analyzing data transmitting in the clear.